Chapter 541: - The Oral Decree

Nian Yao intended to rebel?

After hearing the news, Count Pingye could not help rubbing his chin.

A flicker of surprise flashed through Feng Yuanyang’s eyes and vanished almost immediately.

He had not expected Count Pingye of Yan to remain this calm after hearing such a thing.

And it was not only Count Pingye.

The two subordinates sitting nearby were smiling as well.

Count Pingye looked at Feng Yuanyang with a faint smile.

“This information does nothing but add trouble. Worse, it could disturb the morale of my Great Yan army, perhaps even threaten our entire campaign plan. Out of nowhere, you’ve handed me a whole pile of extra problems. This Count happens to dislike trouble. I dislike it very much. This head of mine is only good for fighting and killing. The moment I start thinking about other things... tsk, it starts hurting. Tell you what. I’ll have you tied up again, along with your personal guards, then drag the lot of you beneath Zhennan Pass for a little parade. I’ll ask Nian Yao directly: ‘The young lord of the Feng Clan says you intend to rebel. Well, Nian Yao? Are you rebelling or not? Give us a definite answer.’ How does that sound?”

Feng Yuanyang’s eyes went wide.

He genuinely had not imagined the conversation could suddenly turn in that direction.

If Count Pingye actually did such a thing, the Feng Clan would unquestionably be destroyed.

This would no longer be a simple matter of Feng Yuanyang being defeated and captured. The Chu court might even conclude that he had secretly colluded with Yan and opened West Mountain Fort from the inside.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Feng Yuanyang knocked his forehead against the ground three times.

“Count, please don’t joke like that. Please don’t joke like that!”

Count Pingye scraped the nail of his little finger across his earlobe, brought the finger in front of his mouth, and blew on it.

“You were the one who joked with this Count first.”

“No, no! This lowly one did not joke with you, Count. I would never dare joke with you. There are simply things I hadn’t finished saying yet, which caused Count to misunderstand. Yes. A misunderstanding.”

“Tsk, tsk. So just now, you were deliberately leaving something unsaid?”

“Yes. No. This lowly one...”

The smile gradually disappeared from Count Pingye’s face.

He tilted his head, leaned down, and stared at Feng Yuanyang prostrated on the floor.

Word by word, he said:

“Young Lord Feng, do you still not understand exactly what kind of situation you are in?”

Count Pingye reached out and grabbed Feng Yuanyang by the hair.

Chu men wore the hair at their temples long. Nobles took especially good care of it.

Zheng Fan got a solid handful on the first try and yanked.

Feng Yuanyang’s head was forcibly pressed against the floor.

Count Pingye planted one boot on his chest.

With his free hand, he lightly slapped Feng Yuanyang’s face.

Slap.

Slap.

The slick softness beneath his palm was nauseating.

“West Mountain Fort was not something you offered up to us. You threw down your weapons only after you already knew there was nowhere left to go. What qualification do you have to sit here displaying the airs of a Great Chu noble? If you’re going to kneel, then kneel properly. Put all five points to the ground and kneel like you mean it. If you’re going to talk, then talk honestly. What do you think you are, some untouched courtesan in a pleasure house, playing games with ‘still holding the pipa, half hiding her face’?”

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk, Count! I’ll tell you everything!”

Count Pingye withdrew his foot and sat back down.

He opened one hand.

A’Ming took out a handkerchief, borrowed Xue San’s waterskin, poured water over the cloth, and handed it to Zheng Fan.

Count Pingye wiped his hand clean.

Then he tossed the cloth onto Feng Yuanyang’s face.

“You’re sweating. Wipe yourself.”

“Thank you, Count. Thank you.”

Feng Yuanyang wiped his face and knelt properly again.

“Count, at the beginning of the year, when troops from my Feng Clan arrived at Zhennan Pass, Nian Yao held a banquet for me that very night. During the feast, he got drunk and said something to me: ‘With all the great merit I’ve earned, why am I still nothing but a slave? Are my sons and grandsons destined to be slaves forever too?’”

“Tsk.”

Count Pingye clicked his tongue.

“That’s it?”

“That... that was all. This lowly one believed General-in-Chief Nian was hinting at something. Hinting that he...”

“Did it ever occur to you that every noble private army that arrives here receives a banquet from Nian Yao, and that he might tell every single one of them exactly the same thing? Did it ever occur to you that when he was saying those drunken words to you, there might even have been Phoenix Nest Guards sitting in the next room, invited there by him specifically to listen and write everything down?”

“...” Feng Yuanyang.

“A’Li. Take him away.”

“Yes, Master.”

Fan Li came in and hauled Feng Yuanyang out.

Xue San spoke.

“Master, he was...”

“Trying to raise his own value. He understands circumstances, yes. But to us, he’s useless. And whether Nian Yao truly harbors rebellious intent is not especially useful to us either. There are countless men in this world who see a beautiful woman on the street and immediately start imagining all kinds of things in their heads. Very few of them actually dare act on those thoughts. What a man thinks and what a man will do are two different matters. Most importantly, we don’t have the energy to play this guessing game with Nian Yao. Either he opens Zhennan Pass cleanly and lets our army in, or he waits for us to take Zhennan Pass ourselves.”

Judging others by himself, Count Pingye felt certain Nian Yao must harbor resentment.

After all, half the credit for the Regent taking power belonged to him.

And if Great Chu had operated like the Barbarian tribes, perhaps that resentment would not matter much.

The Barbarians worshiped the strong and devoured the weak. Their order was crude, direct, and simple.

A slave was a slave.

A noble was a noble.

But if a slave possessed enough ability to rise, he too could become a noble.

Chu, on the other hand...

Call it civilized, and it certainly possessed the *Songs of Chu*, magnificent dress, music, and refinement.

Yet a noble was still a noble.

A slave would forever remain a slave.

The brand of hierarchy was far too deep, practically carved into the bones.

Count Pingye himself had started as a civilian laborer, one of the common black-haired people of Tiger Head City in Beifeng Commandery.

But truthfully, throughout his rise in Great Yan, no one had ever openly despised him for that birth.

At the very least, nobody dared place such contempt on the table.

After the great clans were ridden down, the court was basically full of “mud-legged commoners.” Even men who were not common-born had to smear a layer of mud over themselves. No one dared boast that his family was some prestigious aristocratic house.

Your family is an aristocratic house.

Your whole damned family is an aristocratic house.

A capable man inevitably carried pride in his heart.

Count Pingye did not believe Nian Yao had never entertained the thought.

But whether he had or had not no longer mattered.

In the Prince of Jingnan’s larger strategy, Zhennan Pass and the whole of Shanggu Commandery were pieces on the same board.

If this campaign succeeded, whether Nian Yao surrendered would no longer affect the larger picture.

“A’Ming.”

“Master.”

“Tonight, make a trip to the Prince’s command tent in my name. Tell Tian Wujing about this.”

No matter what, Old Tian needed to know.

But based on Zheng Fan’s understanding of Old Tian, the man would probably be as disdainful as he was of playing this sort of drawn-out guessing game.

Still, he might not mind putting on a little performance if it served the larger strategy.

In any case, Count Pingye had nothing much to do right now except wait.

Wait for the works along the Wang River to be completed and the sluice gates opened.

Wait for the army at Zhennan Pass to gradually carve out a safe, open battlefield.

If there was nothing else to do, writing letters and chatting did not sound so bad.

Treat it as making a pen pal.

Wasn’t that General-in-Chief of Chu supposedly a fan of Old Tian?

Should Zheng Fan write a letter too?

The only problem was that writing letters was such a pain.

Still, with troops fighting to the death at the city walls while the commanders on both sides drank wine and laughed about romance and the moon, perhaps later generations would call it a fine story.

Oh.

Of course, that would also be rather disrespectful to the soldiers on both sides who were currently killing one another with everything they had.

Actually, there was another, more important problem.

Ever since Zheng Fan had made the Sword Saint carry his banner in front of Snow Sea Pass, no commander dared arrange some grand meeting before the battle lines anymore.

The fighting inside the fort had still not ended.

The Chu appeared to have organized several counterattacks, but all of them had been pushed back.

Count Pingye yawned.

“I’m going to sleep for a while.”

...

He slept until evening.

The battlefield truly was an excellent place to eat and sleep.

Only, when he woke and looked out from the gate tower at the blackness beyond, a sense of loneliness began creeping into his heart.

“AAAH!”

Fortunately, a scream immediately pulled Count Pingye back out of that mood.

He stretched and walked outside.

On the wall, Li Fusheng was sitting there while someone treated his wound.

A physician was holding a spearhead.

The thing had apparently broken off inside Li Fusheng’s body earlier.

Seeing Zheng Fan come out, Li Fusheng looked slightly embarrassed.

“You were sleeping so soundly, and I know you spent a long time thinking through today’s battle. I didn’t want to disturb you. Figured I’d let you sleep longer. But just now I couldn’t hold it in. Hahaha.”

Count Pingye walked closer and examined Li Fusheng’s wound.

Fortunately, when the spear entered him, Li Fusheng had probably controlled the qi and blood around the injury and tightened the muscles there.

His spleen had not been damaged.

There looked to be a great deal of blood, but in truth it was only a somewhat serious flesh wound.

“Relax. Your elder brother’s fine. Shi’s third son stabbed me with that spear, but I cut his head off. Hahaha!”

Li Fusheng looked as delighted as a child.

Of course, the fact that Zheng Fan could look at a homicidal madman and somehow see a childlike image proved his own sense of beauty had become warped to a certain degree.

“Have we secured the fort?”

Zhou Huaizong and Feng Yuanyang had been captured alive.

Shi Yuantang’s third son had died in battle.

The defenders inside West Mountain Fort had lost their leaders.

There should not be much of a problem left.

“Most of it has been cleared. We’ll still need to search again tomorrow morning and make sure there aren’t any fish that slipped through the net.”

Li Fusheng gritted his teeth.

“Now this battle was satisfying. Finally cleared out all the frustration that’s been piling up in my gut these past few days.”

“As long as you’re happy.”

“Brother Zheng.”

“Mm?”

“Count Zheng?”

“What is it?”

“Count Pingye?”

“Brother?”

“Zheng Fan.”

“Go ahead.”

“As long as you’re here from now on, your elder brother will listen to you. Wherever you point and tell me to charge, that’s where I’ll charge.”

Quite a few officers and personal guards nearby froze when they heard that.

Before this, their commander had treated Count Pingye politely because of Zheng Fan’s noble rank and the favor he enjoyed with the Prince of Jingnan.

But those words just now meant their commander had genuinely been convinced by Count Pingye.

Count Pingye extended one hand and pointed west.

West was the direction of the Wang River.

The direction of Yingdu.

And farther still... the direction of Yanjing.

Li Fusheng’s eyes grew brighter and brighter.

The murderous fire inside him, which had almost burned itself out during the day’s slaughter, now showed signs of blazing up all over again.

But Count Pingye’s hand drew half a circle through the air.

Then he scratched his hair.

“Brother, that’s putting it too strongly. Ah, I’m hungry. Is there anything to eat?”

Li Fusheng laughed.

“You’re the great contributor today. Of course you’ll be treated properly. I don’t have wine here, but I’ve got fine tea and plenty of good dishes. The only question is how big that stomach of yours is and how much you dare eat.”

“I have a habit. Whenever I see something delicious, I swallow it all first and worry later. Even if my belly bursts, I have to satisfy my tongue before anything else.”

Fan Li, standing nearby, heard this and scratched his head in imitation of Master.

No.

Actually, Master had been copying his signature gesture earlier.

“Me too.”

Li Fusheng said:

“Bursting your belly won’t do. The Prince has warned me over and over these past few days to take it easy and stop rushing forward whenever my blood heats up. He said if I die, finding someone else who can keep these brats under control would be too troublesome. Your elder brother has always followed the rules. I wouldn’t dare die from eating myself stupid.”

Count Pingye nodded.

But Li Fusheng added:

“Of course, if a military order truly comes down, then if I burst, I burst. Hahaha!”

...

Zhennan Pass.

Residence of the General-in-Chief.

That morning, the signal smoke had risen from West Mountain Fort as usual, meaning the Yan attack had begun again.

They were used to that.

Compared with the speed at which East Mountain Fort had fallen, West Mountain Fort’s resistance was what counted as normal.

General-in-Chief Nian sat on the threshold with a pomegranate in his hand, slowly peeling it and eating the seeds.

He felt as though he himself were that pomegranate.

Being peeled apart little by little.

Then eaten.

And yet he could neither forcibly change anything nor did he dare force a change.

Behind him, the Regent had suppressed every memorial impeaching him and ordered him to remain at Zhennan Pass and fight the war properly.

Fight the war.

Fight the war.

What the hell kind of war was this?

“Tsk. Tsk.”

The pomegranate made his teeth ache from the sourness, but Nian Yao kept eating.

The Bai Clan people were dead.

Fine. Dead was dead.

How could war happen without people dying?

Shi Yuantang was dead too.

Another Pillar of State gone.

That was fine as well.

Who told that old bastard to rely on his seniority and insist on rushing to the front?

Aiya.

More people were going to die next.

Great nobles with names and titles.

Many of them.

So many of them...

Nian Yao licked his lips.

Several years earlier, he had fought north and south for the Regent, capturing several princes who had rebelled.

Those princes were all confined in Ying Capital now.

No one killed them.

They were simply kept under control, fed well, clothed well, and every so often women were even sent in so they could father children.

Heh.

After all, their surname was Xiong.

They were the Regent’s brothers.

And those noble clans?

They had followed the princes in rebellion.

No.

Many of them had practically pushed the princes into rebelling.

They were arrested.

Their rank was reduced.

Some fiefs were taken.

And almost none of them were killed.

The Regent had once asked Nian Yao whether he was willing to become his Tian Wujing.

Nian Yao had laughed.

Tian Wujing himself was still leading a great army against Chu right now.

People always said, once the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked; once the millstone stops turning, the donkey is slaughtered.

But after all this time, had Emperor Yan done that to Tian Wujing?

And what about Nian Yao?

During wartime, it did not matter.

After the war...

The private armies of all these nobles were dying.

Nobles themselves were dying.

And every one of those deaths would eventually be charged to Nian Yao’s account.

Your Highness, you said you wanted me to become your Tian Wujing.

But you... can you protect a Tian Wujing?

One casualty list after another.

What were they?

They were Nian Yao’s death warrants.

Smack!

The pomegranate hit the ground.

The guards nearby immediately looked over.

“Damn thing. Sour enough to kill a man!”

...

The Great Yan central army.

The Prince’s command tent.

Eunuch Huang knelt inside.

Seated on the commander’s chair before him was Tian Wujing, Prince of Jingnan.

In truth, throughout the army, even Count Pingye, who enjoyed the greatest favor, was usually far more proper than casual when standing before the Prince of Jingnan.

Outside the army, whether among the common people or within the court, the famous and fearsome Prince of Jingnan inspired something much closer to deep terror.

There had been a time when the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence was Great Yan’s greatest internal threat.

Its power had swollen beyond all control.

The Zhenbei Army numbered three hundred thousand across the Six Garrisons.

Four of those garrisons had once massed along the eastern border of Beifeng Commandery.

If the northern Marquis had given a single order, two hundred thousand elite soldiers could have marched straight toward Yanjing.

But now, although the Commandery Princess had entered the capital without yet marrying, the Zhenbei Army itself had already been dismantled by more than half.

By contrast, Great Yan’s Southern Marquis, after annihilating his own clan, had gone from battlefield to battlefield killing gods when gods stood before him and Buddhas when Buddhas stood before him.

He had destroyed armies and broken states without suffering a single defeat.

Every victory had been overwhelming.

He himself was a Martial Artist at the peak of Third Grade and had defeated the Sword Saint of the Jin lands head-on.

A man like that was simply too terrifying.

Eunuch Huang’s knees were trembling.

As a red-robed eunuch of the palace, he had certainly seen the world.

But in front of the Prince of Jingnan, he genuinely could not summon any backbone.

He was one step away from collapsing into a puddle on the ground.

Years ago, when the First Prince led the Eastern Expedition Army to defeat at the Wang River, the Left-Wing Army was nearly annihilated and Li Bao died in battle.

The court sent an edict asking the Marquis of Jingnan to leave seclusion and take command.

The Marquis shut the gates of his residence and refused all visitors.

Two eunuchs sent one after another to proclaim the edict smashed their own heads against the stone lions outside the Marquis residence and died there.

Eunuch Huang had intended to do the same.

He had already been preparing to run.

Then the gates opened.

Because of that history, His Majesty had once again chosen Eunuch Huang to carry this message.

“His Majesty’s oral decree.”

This was the first time Eunuch Huang had ever delivered an imperial message while kneeling.

There was no third person inside the command tent, so naturally no one could help him to his feet.

And he himself truly could not stand.

The Prince of Jingnan did not kneel to receive the decree either.

He simply remained seated.

Eunuch Huang did not consider that disrespectful in the slightest.

The man before him had always been treated by His Majesty as a brother.

There was no need to care about empty ritual.

More importantly, Eunuch Huang did not have the courage to shout at him:

Insolence! Why are you not kneeling to receive the decree?

“His Majesty asks: ‘How much longer will the war last?’”

Eunuch Huang repeated the words exactly.

The Prince of Jingnan looked at him.

Eunuch Huang silently lowered his head farther and prostrated himself on the ground.

He did not dare meet Tian Wujing’s eyes.

In truth, Tian Wujing was not looking at him.

After the oral decree was spoken, it seemed to Tian Wujing as though the supreme sovereign himself were sitting there before him.

Looking at him.

Asking:

“How much longer will the war last?”

It was only an oral decree.

No formal edict had passed through the central government.

Instead, a red-robed eunuch had been sent all the way from Yanjing solely to ask this one question.

Every word could have been weighed and dissected.

But there was no need.

They knew each other too well.

A rare smile appeared at the corner of the Prince of Jingnan’s mouth.

Are you... about to die?

[End of Chapter 541]